


Blood Bound

by AsagiStilinski



Series: Y-G-October 2018 [20]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Blood, Blood Magic, Blood Pacts, Buffy the Vampire Slayer References, Dreams, Inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), M/M, Magic, Pacts, Pain, Polyamory, Resurrection, Rituals, Sacrifice, Soul Bond, Witchcraft, Yami Yuugi | Atem has his own body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-05 04:02:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16360382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: As if the magic from before hadn't been bad enough, atleast it wasn't typically bloody, but the sheerritualbehind this has him on edge, goosebumps over his skin...He never wants to witness anything like it again"Are you ... really going to be ok?"Because Yugi sure as hell doesn't look ok, not anymore"I'll be fine, I made a promise, to you and to Atem, I'm not going to break it, but... if you need to look away, I understand,"The other duelist scoffed, reaching out to take Yugi's hand and squeeze it gently, his eyes cold and stern"I've never looked away from anything in my life, I'm not starting now so I hope you like an audience,"Day 20 of Y-G-October 2018





	Blood Bound

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Finaiarel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finaiarel/gifts).



> Day 20 of this challenge http://horrificmemes.tumblr.com/post/177941943723/its-that-tiiiime-just-like-last-fall-im-giving "Pact"
> 
> The ritual is from Buffy, but it's tweaked a little, I figure it might have to be considering the circumstances, I also dropped alot of Buffy hints but this isn't really _directly_ in the BTVS universe, it's sort of more an AU or sister universe

"Do you have it?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't,"

Yugi nodded silently, shifting the bag over his shoulder as he watched the taller man walk towards him

"Any particular reason this has to be in a graveyard? Or are we just going there for the ambiance?"

"Why? Do graveyards bother you?" Yugi replied with a small smirk, handing his bag to Seto and following him back to the car

"Just curious, wondered if I really needed to ruin my pants rolling around in the dirt for nothing,"

"Firstly, you won't be 'rolling around in the dirt', and secondly, to answer your question, graveyards are preferable, I need graveyard dirt- alot of it,"

"How wonderfull," he huffed, opening the passenger's side door for the smaller duelist on instinct and letting him in the car before shutting it behind him

Yugi nodded slowly, buckling his seatbelt and turning his attention back to Seto as he slid in the driver's side

Clearly he wanted to keep this little adventure of their's a secret, what with the lack of personal driver, Yugi didn't blame him, he wanted to keep it a secret himself

"And do I even want to know how you came across this spell to begin with?" he asked as he started the engine, apparently not bothering with his own seatbelt

Yugi would usually say something, but at this point he didn't want to take the time to argue about it, instead he merely reached out and gently pulled the seatbelt across the other's chest, buckling it despite Seto's noticeable growls of protest

"It wasn't that hard, I just talked to Ryou, he has some freinds in the magic community who helped him out,"

Seto raised an eyebrow slowly, head tilting as he stepped on the gas pedal

"Freinds who have brought people back from the dead?"

"Mm, one of them atleast," the smaller duelist shrugged

Actually, Yugi had been pretty surprised by that too at first...

\--

_**GhostlyRyou:** Anyone know anything about raising the dead?_

_**WillowTree81:** With the disclaimer that you almost definitely don't want to do this, I have a couple of spells that will work_

\--

"She seemed pretty legit,"

Somehow, Seto found that incredibly hard to believe

".... Right, and you're sure you're skilled enough to pull this off? Last I checked, you were the king of _games_ , not the king of _magic_ ,"

"Ryou has been teaching me, and I ... well, after having someone live in your body for a few years who's very existence is interwoven with magic, it's hard for that not to rub off on you to a degree,"

Now _that much_ Seto actually _could_ believe

"I'll be fine, you're sure that the urn is real though? Not just some cheap fake?"

" _Please_ Yugi, don't insult me, I hired one of the best authenticators in the world _and_ one of the best treasure hunters, not to mention I can spot a fake _anything_ from a mile away, I wouldn't have spent so much money on it if I thought there was even a _question_ of legitimacy,"

Yugi nodded slowly, glancing out the window for a moment in silence as they drove- well... as Seto drove, anyway

"I guess I'm just surprised that you found it so quickly, the Urn Of Osiris was supposed to be lost to history ages ago..."

"Believe this or not, I found it on Ebay,"

Yugi suddenly snapped his head around, a pinched look on his face as he stared at the other duelist

Seto was stone-faced, it was impossible to tell if he was kidding or not

"... I can't even find Scooby Doo jelly jars..."

" _Scoob-...?_ You know what? I'm not even going to ask, I'll find you your jelly jars, consider them a gift for helping me with this,"

"You say that as though I'm not doing it just as much for myself, I wish I was that selfless Seto, but I'm not,"

"Mm, no, your line between selfless and selfish is pretty murky... tell me though, what was it that changed your mind about all of this to begin with? When I tried to bring him back on my own you had a fit, kept going on about how I should 'let him rest in peace' and all that other garbage, so what was it? What made you suddenly decide that he no longer deserved to rest in peace, hm?"

Yugi flinched, biting the tip of his tongue and looking down at his hands, folded up in his lap

They had sort of been... avoiding this subject, since the first day he contacted Seto about bringing Atem back, it was the elephant in the room that neither of them had wanted to address

Seto apparently got tired of staring at the elephant

"It isn't that I stopped believing he deserves to rest in peace, it's that.. I stopped believing he _is_ resting in peace,"

"Oh, now this I have to hear,"

Yugi wrinkled his nose, resisting the urge to snap at Seto's ... less than compassionate response

"I... had a dream, the night before I sought you out, Mahaad visited me, he .. said that he thought Atem was unhappy... that he missed us too much, he said that he's been ... _mourning_ me, in a way, since the moment he entered Aaru, and that he's been missing you too, that everytime he looks at his cousin, he gets melancholy... but that all of it just started getting worse once you started visiting him, he said he doesn't think Atem can ever be truly happy without us... that they can wait another seventy or eighty years for the three of us if it means letting Atem have a happy life, but that him waiting so long for us would be... _devastating_ to him,"

"Bold of him to assume I'll die in seventy or eighty years," Seto grumbled, though Yugi could sense the underlying tone of softness beneath the sarcasm

Seto felt as touched by this as Yugi did, although probably far less conflicted, given that he had been trying from the beginning to bring the pharaoh back to life

"I'm just saying... my reasons for wanting you to let Atem stay in the afterlife is because I thought he was happier there, but if that isn't the case then.... then I want to bring him back home, I want to be with him, if I can make him happier than he is now, then I want to atleast try,"

"And what if you're wrong? What if Mahaad didn't reach out to you and your dream was just a dream?"

"Then... I'll handle the consequences,"

He expected his partner to question what he meant by that, but to his surprise, Seto remained quiet

"I have a feeling you won't let him go back once you have him again though, am I right?"

"You know me well," Seto smirked, but the light expression only lasted a moment, hardening into something more serious only seconds later

"I'm not letting go of him again, they'll have to claw him out of my cold, dead hands first, I don't care if it is or isn't what he wants, or what he _thinks_ he wants, he was sixteen-year-olds when he was used as a _sacrifice_ , he was a _child_ , no older than Mokuba is now, anyone who thinks he doesn't deserve the chance to have a real life is either an idiot or a cold-blooded snake out to use him for their own purposes,"

He's heard this rant before, ofcourse

To Yugi's utter shock, Seto could go on for ages about how utterly unjust it was that Atem died at sixteen and never had a chance to have a real life after

Yugi suspects that it's because Mokuba is at that age now, and he's projecting his feelings about his brother's quality of childhood- or lack thereof- onto Atem, or maybe he just sees now, face to face and in the flesh, how young sixteen really is, and he realizes exactly how much Atem gave up when he sacrificed himself for the greater good, or maybe it was even more than all of that...

Yugi didn't know, he didn't care, he just knew that Seto's passion for the insistence on allowing Atem a life of his own had done nothing but increase over the last several months and he's caught somewhere between feeling fond of the other's concern, and feeling something akin to guilt and bitterness over it

Seto has always been so steadfast in his desire for Atem, and although Yugi has just been trying to do what's right for the pharaoh's happiness, he sometimes can't help feeling as though Seto sees him as the bad guy in all of this

Lately, he's started to feel like one, after that dream....

Knowing that he's part of the reason Atem can't be happy in the peacefull paradise he's so valiantly earned hurts him, he feels guilty, even though he knows he shouldn't

_"He can never be happy without you, I see that now,"_

Those words just kept ringing in Yugi's head, like a bell, over and over again....

"We're here, is there any particular part of the graveyard where we need to be for this?"

"No just.... not on anyone's grave directly,"

"Got it," the CEO nodded, turning the engine off and unbuckling his seatbelt

Yugi hesitated for a moment, biting slowly into his lip as he unbuckled himself too, sliding out of the car right after his partner

Seto rounded back to the trunk, retreiving Yugi's backpack as well as his own and carrying them both effortlessly over one shoulder

"This spell.... it isn't going to hurt you, is it?"

Ah... good question

"It... will drain me, but as long as I don't screw it up, it shouldn't actually _harm_ me,"

"That's reassuring,"

"Do you ever get tired of being sarcastic all the time?"

"Do _you_ ever get tired of being nice all the time?"

"Am I supposed to take that as an insult?" Yugi asked with a teasing grin, following behind Seto as the other duelist pulled a flashlight out of his backpack and began shining it ahead

"Am _I_ supposed to take _your's_ as an insult?"

Hm, good question....

"I guess not," Yugi smiled softly, watching in slight surprise as Seto merely reached between the bars of the cemetery gate and jostled the lock a little, the gate doors slowly swinging open to accommodate them

"Wow, I'm .... impressed... how did you know what to do?"

"I've snuck into this place before, I learned about the sticky lock years ago, it won't even keep out a bumbling idiot, much less people who are actually intelligent,"

Yugi wanted to ask- like so many other things, he wanted to ask- but like nearly everything else, he resisted the urge, simply following Seto into the graveyard and picking out a nice spot in the back where they would have plenty of space

Setting up was quiet, lighting the candles and incense, mixing the herbs, it was work of concentration, Yugi hadn't even noticed that a few minutes in he had started shivering, not until he felt something warm drape around his shoulders that is, and glanced up to see Seto had draped a sweater across him

The look he gave was a silent question, prompting the CEO to heave a sigh, his face tinged pink and his eyes averted

"I know how easily you get cold... it's sixty degrees out here, leave it to you not to wear a jacket,"

Yugi only smiled, his face tinting pink as he reached into the other's bag and pulled out the object he had been waiting on all this time- The Urn Of Osiris

"Thank you," he said softly, only earning a quiet huff in response

Unfortunately... this was the hard part

He poured the herbs into the urn, then took the dagger he had brought along out of his bag, and hesitated, his gaze flicking up to the CEO for a breif moment

"Seto... are you sure about this? Blood magic... it's .. it always comes with a price,"

"I'm rich, I've never seen a price I can't pay,"

"You know that isn't what I mean," Yugi huffed sternly

"Then what is this mysterious price? Hm? Do you know?"

Actually, yes, he did know... wich is part of why he asked

"Once we do this, we're making a pact, not only with eachother, but with the gods, we're committing ourselves to them, for eternity, promising them our souls... when we die, we'll go to Aaru, when we pray it'll be to the Egyptian gods, we'll probably even have to pass this on to our children, to insure that they join us some day in the same afterlife, are ... are you really ok with all of that?"

The CEO shrugged, looking utterly unbothered

"I was athiest before all this Egyptian god crap anyway, it doesn't make much difference to me, besides, isn't Aaru where Atem will be when he dies again? That's where I would want to be anyway,"

"What about Mokuba?"

"What about him? I'll just make sure that he ends up there too, he's a smart kid, it won't be hard, what about your grandfather and your nerdy little freinds? I don't have many attachments to other people, but you do, will you really be ok with never seeing them again?"

"Grandpa already believes in the Egyptian gods, I don't think it'll be hard to get him to convert, he's not exactly religious as it is, and neither are my freinds, but..... I know that it's asking alot of them, I know that some of them won't want to make any changes and ... I'll live with that, as long as I can be with Atem, I'll be happy,"

He paused, reaching out slowly and taking Seto's hand

"As long as I can be with _you_ , I'll be happy," he added softly, much to Seto's dry amusement

"You don't need to placate me Yugi, I know what you two have is- ... well, there's really nothing that can ever come between it, and I would never want to anyway,"

"I wasn't placating you, I was being serious," he insisted, tightening his grip and glancing down at the ground

"Seto, the last few months... what we developed... we promised that when we brought Atem back, we wouldn't lose this, that come what may - .... don't tell me that was all just some kind of joke, or a lie,"

The taller duelist was quiet for a moment, slowly shaking his head

"No, it wasn't a joke, or a lie, if you ... really want to keep that pact, after seeing him again, then we'll keep it, but I know that once he's around again-"

Yugi shook his head quickly, plunging forward and giving Seto a short but firm kiss, clearly wanting to quiet him down

"Seto, we've been together for two months, I'm not going to give you up just because Atem is back, and you're not giving me up either, we're doing this because we _both_ want Atem... and we want eachother, that was our pact, wasn't it?"

The CEO was quiet for a breif moment before slowly nodding his agreement, a small smile flashing on Yugi's face as he squeezed Seto's hand

"Good," he insisted, carefully and reluctantly pulling his hand away and grabbing the dagger once again

Steeling himself, he took a deep breath, unsheathing the blade and holding one hand over the urn, moving the dagger towards it, only for Seto to reach out and quickly grab his wrist

"How much blood do you need?"

"Ah... I'm not sure exactly... more than a few drops, I know that..."

Carefully, Seto moved Yugi's hand- the one holding the dagger- away, reaching out and gently rolling up the sleeve of his other arm, before taking his lover's hand and re-positioning it so that the blade was hovering over the center of Yugi's forearm

"Don't do it the way you see on TV, that's a quick way to accidentally kill yourself,"

Yugi nodded slowly, his heart racing at this point as he carefully brought the blade forward

"Do it quickly, like in a slasher movie, one clean slice, it'll hurt less,"

Nodding shakily, he braced himself and quickly slashed the blade down against his arm, letting out a quiet cry of pain as the skin broke open and blood poured down into the urn

Without hesitation or question, Seto undid the belts over one arm and rolled his sleeve up, taking the blade from his partner and dragging the urn closer before slashing his own arm, blood pouring out into the urn over top of Yugi's

"Didn't want to see if I had another dagger on me huh?" Yugi teased with a wince, already fishing the first aid kit out of his bag

"You really think I'm against sharing blood with you?" he huffed sarcastically, setting the dagger down on the lid of the first aid kit as he grabbed a roll of bandages and quickly wrapped Yugi's wound

It wasn't enough, but it'd do for now, so he quickly did the same with his own

"Huh... I don't know, I thought you'd be more cautious,"

"With anyone else? Yes, with you or the pharaoh? ... I think we're beyond that, you're binding our _souls_ aren't you? What's a little blood bonding?"

He wasn't sure why, but Yugi found that highly amusing, so much so that he wore a smile on his face the entire time he spent mixing the ingredients in the urn, before finally reaching into his bag for the last item- a small cloth doll, that he set in the center of the pentagram he had drawn on the ground, difficult in grass if one was using material such as chalk or ink, but Yugi?

Yugi _burned_ the pentagram into the ground

"What's that?"

"It's called a Tribute Doll,"

"Like the card...?"

"Well, sort of, we don't have Atem's body here, getting his body- or anything that holds remnants of his soul like the puzzle- is pretty much impossible at this point, so-"

"I could have gotten it for you if you'd asked,"

"I'm sure you could have, but it wouldn't have been worth the trouble when a Tribute Doll will work just fine, do you really want to see Atem's _dead body_ anyway?"

He took his boyfreind's silence as a "no"

"Tribute Dolls channel the soul into them, and then they become new bodies, they become flesh and blood and bone once the soul has entered,"

"Sounds painfull,"

"It shouldn't be,"

Seto was clearly unimpressed, "shouldn't be" never seemed to hold up with anything when it came to - .. well... anything in their lives

Dueling tournaments _shouldn't be_ life threatening

Gaudy jewlry _shouldn't be_ possessed by ancient spirits

That ice cream _shouldn't be_ bad just because he left it on the counter for an hour wile taking a phone call and forgot to put it in the freezer and yet Yugi had ended up tossing his cookies anyway

"Shouldn't be" really never worked out

"... Uh-huh, and didn't you say there were other ways of doing this spell? Would any of them have been safer? For _either_ of you?"

"Sure, maybe, if we had Atem's body it might _possibly_ be safer for him than using a doll, but I really don't think the risk of _tomb-robbing_ his corpse and dragging it half way across the world into a graveyard in the middle of the night would go unnoticed, no matter how rich you are Seto, and technically, using someone else's blood in a spell is always safer for the practitioner than using their own, but that wasn't really an option for this,"

"You used my blood," Seto noted with confusion

"And that helps, it'll take the edge off, that way I don't have to use as much of mine... but we're still _binding_ ourselves to him, the only alternates to this spell don't involve binding rituals, wich means borrowing blood from another source, an outside source, and when I say 'borrowing' I kind of mean 'stealing',"

"And this outside source would be...?"

Yugi paused, staring at his partner with a pinched expression

"I am _not_ killing a baby deer, deer are _sacred_ in Pagan society and I'm using Pagan magic to bring Atem back, it's ... like _sacrilege_ , and it just goes against my own moral code, plus, once you take a life for magic- no matter your intention, no matter what life, no matter what the circumstances are- it ... it puts a dark mark on you, on your magic, on your very being... dark magic is not something to screw around with, and _Vino de Madre_ is just about as dark of an ingredient as you're going to get, even if you do bless it at the time, if we're using our own blood as a sacrifice, there's a thread of purity there, of honesty, we're giving of ourselves, not taking from another to use in our place, the woman Ryou talked to who told him about these spells said that she went the _Vino de Madre_ route the first time she used it when she didn't know any better and that it's scarred her ever since, binding spells are safer, they're still dark magic, but ... it's the difference between marijuana and cocaine, they're both bad for you, but comparatively, marijuana is _way_ better to dabble in, do you see what I'm saying?"

"More or less, though your grasp on all of this crap is starting to worry me, especially now that you're comparing it to drugs, _tell me_ that you're going to drop it the moment Atem is back?"

"I'm not looking to become a full-fledged witch if that's what you're asking, and I'm _never_ using dark magic again after this... but I do want to keep light magic in my backpocket in case of emergency, Ryou has me in touch with Miss Willow, she's been through pretty much every side of magic there is, she won't let me go too far,"

Seto sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose

None of this sounded even remotely good or even _sane_ but what was he going to do? Stop him?

Not now, not after all this, not when they were so close....

"I bet you'd have used Bakura as a sacrifice, not Ryou, the other one," he noted teasingly, watching as Yugi dipped his fingers into the urn

"Him I'd have used," his partner teased back, his fingers dripping with the bloody herbal paste as he carefully began to anoint himself with it, across his forehead, down his nose, over his cheeks

Seto can't help but shift in discomfort, he'd never been a fan of magic to begin with, and the more he saw of it, the less he liked it, but this....

This was an entirely different level

As if the magic from before hadn't been bad enough, atleast it wasn't typically bloody, but the sheer _ritual_ behind this has him on edge, goosebumps over his skin...

He never wants to witness anything like it again

"Are you ... really going to be ok?"

Because Yugi sure as hell doesn't look ok, not anymore

"I'll be fine, I made a promise, to you and to Atem, I'm not going to break it, but... if you need to look away, I understand,"

The other duelist scoffed, reaching out to take Yugi's hand and squeeze it gently, his eyes cold and stern

"I've never looked away from anything in my life, I'm not starting now so I hope you like an audience,"

His partner only smiled bittersweetly, giving his hand a squeeze in return before reluctantly removing it

Seto could still feel the bloody paste on his palm

It was _sickening_

"Whatever you do Seto, whatever happens to me, whatever you see or hear, you have to promise me that you won't interrupt, it could.... it could ruin everything, if you do,"

"I won't,"

Unlike Yugi, however, Seto had been known to break promises if he had to

And this would be no exception

As much as he wanted Atem back, he wasn't going to lose one boyfreind for the other, he wasn't going to give up another person he loved

Not for this, not for anything

_"Osiris... keeper of the gate, master of all fate, hear us,"_

It was starting

_"Before time and after, before knowing and nothing, accept our offering, know our prayer,"_

Slashes suddenly began appearing on Yugi's arms, giving Seto a jolt as he watched the blood pour out of his partner's pale skin

He felt sick, he felt sick, he felt sick....

But he wasn't going to stop him, not yet

Dark magic was dangerous, they both knew that, and it was foolish to think that they'd get out of it without more pain

_"Osiris! Here lies the warrior of the people, let him cross over!"_

Now Seto is the one hissing in pain, gashes starting to open up on his arms too, though, looking at Yugi, at the red light surrounding him, the way his body vibrated and shook, it was nothing to complain about in comparison

_"Osiris! Let him cross over!"_

He was... he was _convulsing_ , his eyes starting to darken, his breathing noticeably clogged, Seto had to do.... had to do.... _something_!!!

He squeezed his hands together, remembering the bloody mess on them, and quickly swiped what he could of the blood over his face to mirror Yugi, then took his hand again, much to the new witch's alarm

_"Osiris! Let him cross over!"_ Seto chanted, staring directly at his partner

There was a pause, just a beat of silence, before they squeezed eachother's hands and began together

_**"Osiris! Let him cross over! Osiris! Let him cross over! Osiris-!"** _

A loud clap of thunder rang in the distance, so loud that it stopped their chanting, an enormous gust of wind rushing past and blowing out the candles and incense, and then.... the sound of groaning...

Slowly, the two looked down, hearts beating faster as they took note of the body suddenly laying before them

"Atem!!" Yugi screamed, launching himself forward and wrapping himself around the pharaoh's shoulders, hugging him desperately and stroking his fingers through his hair, backing up a second later and quickly cupping his face, not caring about the blood and herbs that would stain it now

"Atem can you hear me? Are you alright?"

"Ai-Aibou....? _Yugi...?_ "

Yugi released a breath, shaking and shuddering, as he hurried to hug his partner again, nearly sobbing as he felt Atem shakily wrap his arms back around him, his hold going quickly from loose to firm and warm and welcoming

"Yugi... Yugi.... how did...? How am I-...?"

"Dark magic, you're welcome," Seto replied dryly, reaching into his bag and pulling out some clothes- nothing special, just sweat pants, a t-shirt, and a heavy jacket- and grabbing some bandages for his and Yugi's wounds, just quick patches for now, until they could get home and do a better job

Atem's head jerked up, eyes wide as he stared over at the CEO

"Kaiba... your face-"

Then he looked back to Yugi, his expression quickly flicking from confused to angry

"Aibou, _your_ face-.... what were you two thinking using dark magic!? Do you have ANY idea how dangerous that is!?"

"We know," Yugi and Seto replied in deadpanned unison

"But you were worth the risk," Yugi promised gently, smiling warmly at his partner

"You were worth the _cost_ more like it," Seto argued, tossing the pants at Atem's face

"Put those on before you freeze to death,"

But the pharaoh didn't move, not yet anyway

"I do not understand, what happened to letting me rest in peace? Suddenly risking the world isn't enough and you have to risk both your lives because of some-"

"Mahaad came to me in a dream, he told me you were unhappy," Yugi interrupted, managing to zap the anger right out of Atem

"He... told you that?"

"He said you couldn't be happy without us, that they could wait another eighty years for you, but you couldn't wait that long for us, so.... we made a blood pact, Seto and I, the three of us will die and move on to Aaru together when the time comes, we gave ourselves to the gods, and to you, when that time comes, we'll be your's Atem, but until then, you are _our's_.... unless you don't want to be,"

Atem let out a low, quiet breath, his face softening as he stared between the two of them

" _Your's_..... I believe I can get used to that,"

"Good, now if all the sappy crap is over; you- _PANTS_ ,"

"Yes yes, I'm getting into your pants _Seto_ ," the pharaoh huffed, shifting around and starting to get dressed, much to Yugi's amused laugh

"When did I give you permission to call me that?"

"Well Yugi does it,"

"Last I checked you aren't Yugi,"

"I was once, sort of, ish,"

"Doesn't count,"

"Well it's no matter, we're blood bound now, I think we can call eachother whatever we please,"

"I'll keep that in mind, _Walking Dead_ ,"

"Guys, really? Are we going to do this now?" Yugi sighed, grabbing the shirt Seto had brought and helping Atem get it over his head

"Aibou has a point, you're both injured, you need to go home and get yourselves properly fixed up and resting, that spell must have taken quite a toll," Atem replied seriously, going for the jacket next as Yugi started to clean up

"It could have been worse, it _would_ have been worse if Seto hadn't helped me like he did, when Willow did her version she coughed up a snake,"

Seto, who was in the midst of also cleaning up, paused abruptly and stared at Yugi blankly

"That would not have been ok with me, just for future reference, I'm not kissing anyone who's ever had a snake in their mouth,"

"Then that means you are free to kiss me?" Atem teased, batting his eyes playfully

Seto, utterly stone-faced, dragged the pharaoh forward and-

...

Yugi kissed him first

Quick, fleeting, and chaste, before going back to packing up

"Alright, what the ever loving fu-"

"I still did the majority of that spell, it only seems fair that I get to have his first kiss," Yugi shrugged simply, a teasing smirk on his face

...

Just for that, when Seto kissed Atem, it was harder, longer, and glaring at Yugi near the entire time

"This..." Atem huffed slowly as his former rival pulled away

"This is going to take some getting used to it,"

"Not as much as you think," Yugi shrugged back, finally heaving the bag over his shoulder and reaching down to take Atem's hand

Seto, who had finished packing up as well, copied his partner

And Atem, staring between the two of them, simply took both hands and allowed them to help him to his feet, stumbling a bit as they both wrapped their arms around him in support

"I'll take your word for it, but... are you really sure that all of this was worth it?"

"Atem," Seto noted slowly

"I put blood on my face, _it was worth it_ ,"

" _You_ are worth it," Yugi corrected softly, offering another light smile as the three began walking out of the graveyard

"If you both believe so ... then I suppose it's true, just one little question,"

"Anything, Mou Hitori," Yugi smiled back affectionately

"Are you just going to leave that pentagram burned into the soil of the graveyard?"

They would _definitely_ have a few things to get used to

(But it was worth it)


End file.
